Minutes

Minutes of the meeting of the Domestic and Sexual Violence Board held on 3 April 2009 at 10 Dean Farrar Street, London, SW1H 0NY.

Present

Members

• Chair - Cindy Butts, MPA
• Valerie Brasse, MPA
• Kirsten Hearne, MPA
• Nicola Speechly, GoL
• Anthony Wills, Standing Together
• Elizabeth Harrison, Havens
• Laura Willoughby, Havens
• Colin Fitzgerald, Respect
• Denise Marshall, Eaves
• Louise Smith, CPS

Guests

• Siobhan Coldwell, MPA
• Michael Wadham, MPA
• Laura Duckworth, MPA
• Gemma Deadman, MPA
• Lynne Abrams, MPA
• Sam Evans, MPA
• John Yates, MPS
• Mark Simmons, MPS
• Gerry Campbell, MPS
• Mark Yexley, MPS
• Heather Toulson, MPS
• Sharon Stratton, MPS
• Victoria Kielinger, MPS
• Anthea Richards, MPS
• Tony Dawson, MPS Bexley
• Pete Thomas, MPS Bexley
• Kevin Taylor, Bexley Neighbourhood Services
• Sharon Grant, CPS Bexley
• Anjum Mouj, Imkaan
• Somata Roy, Imkaan
• Jamey Fisher, Galop
• Erica Rolle, Hillingdon
• Cat Whitehouse, Eaves
• Jan Scott, Victim Support
• Chris Bourlet, MPS Merton
• Jim Wingrave, MPS Merton
• Stewart Low, MPS Wandsworth
• Mark Cranwell, MPS Wandsworth
• Steve Ainscough, MPS Wandsworth

Apologies

• Davina James Hanman, GLDVP
• Yeliz Osman, GLA
• Dru Sharpling, CPS (representative present; Louise Smith)
• Alison Armstrong, NHS London

Bexley response to domestic and sexual violence

1.Bexley Borough commander provided a brief synopsis of Bexley’s report. He explained the context of Bexley as an outer London borough, with a population of around 220,000, with a lot of emerging communities. He went on to say that performance had improved substantially over the past couple of years due to the commitment of staff and allocation of resources. He noted that Bexley’s performance across domestic and sexual violence was top of the MPS, notably the sanction detection rate for rape which was 90%. He also outlined the need for tight supervision and intrusive management around frontline teams and the completion of 124D forms. Finally he said that the two areas which needed further development were ‘partnership work’ (which might include setting up MARAC and integrating council and police services) and ‘Criminal Justice’ (such as work to improve convictions).

2. The chair agreed that a strong element of the report was the commitment of officers and leadership of senior officers and the Borough Commander. Questions were taken from DSVB members and the public.

 Q: What learning has there been around the murder review and should these reviews be external and independent?

A: The murder review is uncompleted as yet but, having spoken to the senior investigating officer regularly; it does not appear the life could have been saved if things had been done differently. Independent oversight is an advantage to any review but the issue would need to be taken forward by the MPS centrally.

Action: LA & MS

Q: What has been put in place to engage with local groups and individuals to instil confidence for victims of domestic and sexual violence to come forward?

A: The BOCU reaches out to people through existing social institutions – housing groups, churches, faith groups and schools (every school gets a visit from SNT member). Also use faith of officers to reach out to communities. Held several public meetings where hundreds of people have been engaged. We do engagement well – have just mapped the all the communities and met their leaders. Domestic and sexual violence is integrated to this engagement. The BOCU is also setting up a mobile resource centre to go out into the borough.

Not got a MARAC as yet. CIT team had to be restructured first due to internal problems. Do have a hate crime forum which functions in a similar way to a MARAC. Currently the hate crime coordinator is in the process of being trained but when ready a MARAC will be set up.

 Q: The Board has previously heard that supervision of frontline officers is poor do you know how you perform in this area?

A: We are better than the MPS average but there’s always room for improvement. Previously short of sergeants but now up to strength. Now have at least one uniformed sergeant on patrol 24/7.

 Q: Have you considered a domestic violence court to deal with the criminal justice issues?

A: Tried to set up specialist court but it was felt by some that there was not sufficient volume of incidents to make it viable. Do have a Criminal Justice Group at which domestic violence is a regular theme and a specialist court is being pushed for. Shortly due to go ‘live’ with ‘virtual court’ which is hoped will assist victims give evidence and speed up courts process and reduce attrition.

 Q: Be careful when engaging with community ‘leaders’ and faith groups because cultural hierarchies may mean that you are not actually reaching certain women. You could meet specifically with women only groups? In addition; is the engagement literature available in multiple languages? Translation is very important particularly when dealing with the issue of trafficking.

A: We take a health and victim based approach to trafficking; working with the Primary Care Trust (PCT) and local authority. This protocol can be shared with the DSVB.
Action: Bexley

English is often a second language and multiple formats and translations are available, but it is too costly to produce them all at once. We do also meet with women only groups e.g. Bangladeshi Women’s Welfare Association. We’ve just had a new mosque open and, in the last couple of years, 12 new churches (mostly Evangelical and Pentecostal) and are acutely aware that gender relationships within such establishments can be different and very specific.

 Q: What will be the impact of the restructuring of how the MPS deals with rape (i.e. the movement of serious sexual violence to central command)?

A: We must make sure our service doesn’t drop and we don’t ‘de-invest’ in sexual violence over the coming year. We do have concerns – one of our best Detective Sergeants will be going to the new unit in central command. The current sapphire unit is also critical to developing the skills of officers in the borough. We will still need some local equivalent to investigate serious sexual assault. The community will also have to be reassured that the restructure will not cause a drop in service.

We understand that not every borough is performing around rape under the current structure, but Bexley Sapphire team is highly valued and has lots of local knowledge. Ideally would like to see the team stay but perhaps be financed from elsewhere.

Mark Simmons added that one of the key benefits of centralising Sapphire will be the ability to provide a 24/7 service to all 32 boroughs.

 Q: What about succession planning?

A: Our service delivery will be embedded within strategies and not reliant on individuals. The Borough Commander will be focussed on this area of work and everyone else will follow. Even if the borough Commander moves on the strategy is still in place, there is also link commander and we have outstanding DIs to maintain performance.

Q: How do you deal with officers and/or staff who may have been either victims or perpetrators of domestic or sexual violence?

A: There is clear policy – they will not be dealt with any differently to anyone else. We may utilise support from neighbouring boroughs to ensure impartiality if necessary.

 Q: Has any analysis been done on the Violent and Forensic Offender Management process?

A: It works for us and has been shared with other boroughs and territorial policing. It works by combining information on an offender that was previously held in lots of separate places e.g. outstanding suspects on crime reporting system, those identified by forensics, bail returns to the police station and circulations register (outstanding warrants). These are brought together at a meeting and then DIs and DSs are challenged as to why a crime is, say, 25 days old and not resolved.

When the process started we had around 130 outstanding crimes some of which were over 90 days old. Now there are less than 60 and few are above 28 days old. The VAFOM process has also been shared with the Violent Crime Directorate for other boroughs to use.

3. The Chair thanked Bexley for reporting to the Board and summed up the session. She said it was clear the team at Bexley committed to the domestic and sexual violence agenda. The improvements in performance and allocation of resources were noted.

The Chair stated the DSVB would like to hear further on your efforts to develop virtual courts and a specialist domestic violence court. We would also like to hear a bit more on how you specifically target community engagement, advertise your services, particularly around engaging with women only groups – perhaps an audit of all engaged with. Finally we would ask that you also keep an eye on your succession planning to ensure the good work continues. We will send a letter containing these actions to you.

Action: DSVB & Bexley

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